George Bernard Shaw, Man of Destiny (1897), one act play, in his Complete Plays with Prefaces, vol. 1, p. 743 (1962)

There is nothing so bad or so good that you will not find an Englishman doing it; but you will never find an Englishman in the wrong. He does everything on principle. He fights you on patriotic principles; he robs you on business principles; he enslaves you on imperial principles.

— George Bernard Shaw on England

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "There is nothing so bad or so good that you will not find an Englishman doing it; but you will never find an Englishman in the wrong. He does everything on principle. He fights you on patriotic principles; he robs you on business principles; he enslaves you on imperial principles." in the context of "George Bernard Shaw, Man of Destiny (1897), one act play, in his Complete Plays with Prefaces, vol. 1, p. 743 (1962)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "England" (Quotes, 19th century) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
George Bernard Shaw

About George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist with a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory. He wrote more than sixty plays, including such works as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1913) and Saint Joan (1923). Shaw was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925.